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Room E

Painted as a grisaille (a work of varying tones, but a single colour), this picture is intended as an imitation of a mounted engraving, although the subject does not duplicate that of any known print. It is probably a derivative by Boilly of his Salon picture of 1799.

The composition derives from a type of genre scene popular in 17th-century Holland and which also became popular with collectors in France in the later 18th century. The highly finished style in this picture recalls such 17th-century Dutch painters as Caspar Netscher.